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Editor's Picks: Tom DiChiara's Top 10 Movies of 2009

By Thomas DiChiara (Subscribe to Thomas DiChiara's posts), Posted Dec 30th 2009 1:30PM
Filed under: Features, Best & Worst of 2009
The Top 10 Movies of 2009It was a year of overly-hair-gelled vampires, badass boy wizards, hungover idiots and shape-shifting robots; a year when 'Star Trek' became relevant once again and George Clooney and Brad Pitt proved they deserve to be the biggest movie stars on the planet; a year when Sam Raimi reminded us what horror movies are all about and Wes Anderson found his true calling; a year when 'Wild Things' roared and James Cameron became king of the world for a second time (though this go-around he deserves it). In short, 2009 was one heck of a year for people who love to make up these nifty end-of-the-year top 10 lists ... and an even better year for people who simply love to watch movies.
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Christmas Classics Reimagined as Action Movies

By Thomas DiChiara (Subscribe to Thomas DiChiara's posts), Posted Dec 18th 2009 4:00PM
Filed under: Features, Movie News, Hot Topic
Christmas Classics Reimagined as Action MoviesAs long as they've existed, Christmas movies have been instilling joy, celebrating family and generally warming moviegoers' hearts. But what if the holiday tales the world has come to know and love replaced their gooey sentimental centers with butt-kicking action and edge-of-your-seat adventure?

That's the idea behind a new version of 'The Nutcracker,' which was originally published as a story by E.T.W. Hoffman in 1816, was most famously adapted into an 1892 ballet by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and is now getting a modern makeover as an action-adventure movie, courtesy of New Line and scribe Darren Lemke.

Yes, you read that correctly: The magical yarn, about a girl's favorite Christmas toy that comes to life, defeats a malevolent Mouse King and whisks the girl off to a fantastical land populated by living toys, has been reimagined as a live-action 'Chronicles of Narnia'-esque epic. (We can see the tagline now: "This holiday season ... nuts will be cracked!")

Of course, we had to wonder what would happen if other Yuletide classics were given the action treatment. The resulting movies may not warm too many hearts, but they might just make you chuckle ... or give you the strange urge to crunch some bad-guy macadamias.
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Johnny Depp on Taking Over for Heath Ledger in 'Parnassus': Exclusive!

By Thomas DiChiara (Subscribe to Thomas DiChiara's posts), Posted Dec 16th 2009 5:30PM
Filed under: Movie News
Johnny Depp on Taking Over for Heath Ledger in 'Parnassus': Exclusive! Heath Ledger's tragic death on Jan. 22, 2008, left the world without one of its most promising acting talents. It also left director Terry Gilliam with half of 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' still to film and no leading man with which to film it. Into this gaping void stepped Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law, each of whom play a different incarnation of Ledger's character, a mysterious loner who helps the titular Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) save his daughter's soul from the Devil (Tom Waits).

In a heartfelt statement released exclusively to Moviefone, Depp opened up about the honor and the sadness of helping to complete Ledger's final big-screen performance. See what he had to say after the jump.
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'Robin Hood' (2010) Trailer: Say Hello to Maximus of Locksley

By Thomas DiChiara (Subscribe to Thomas DiChiara's posts), Posted Dec 15th 2009 2:15PM
Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Video
'Robin Hood' (2010) trailer Are you not entertained ... by the new trailer for Ridley Scott's untitled 'Robin Hood' movie? The teaser trailer for the director's gritty new take on the legendary bow-wielding outlaw hit the Web today -- and any movie fan would have to be asleep or 14 beers into a holiday celebration not to notice the evident similarities between 'Hood' and that other Ridley Scott period epic, 'Gladiator.' Watch the trailer after the jump.
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Viggo Mortensen Talks The Road and The Hobbit

By Thomas DiChiara (Subscribe to Thomas DiChiara's posts), Posted Dec 12th 2009 7:12AM
Filed under: Celebrity Interviews
Viggo MortensenViggo Mortensen isn't your average Hollywood leading man. He speaks no fewer than five languages, writes poetry, paints, plays music and was once a truck driver in Denmark. And since his star-making turn as the heroic Aragorn in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy - a role which he would have turned down had his son not begged him to do it - he's pretty much steered clear of Hollywood blockbusters. Instead, he's opted to tackle grittier fare such as A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, the latter of which earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination and hordes of female fans, thanks in part to a savage all-nude knife fight that's become the stuff of movie legend.

Viggo Mortensen interview after the jump...
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'Avatar' Clip: Exclusive

By Thomas DiChiara (Subscribe to Thomas DiChiara's posts), Posted Dec 11th 2009 6:00PM
Filed under: Video
'Avatar' clipThere's only a week and counting until James Cameron unleashes his revolutionary new 3-D technology upon the anxious masses with 'Avatar,' but you don't have to wait until then to see a solid three minutes of the film.

Moviefone has an exclusive three-minute clip from the flick, which stars Sam Worthington as a paralyzed Marine who travels to the distant planet of Pandora, uses a synthesized alien body to infiltrate the planet's blue-skinned, nature-loving indigenous people the Na'vi, and ends up sympathizing with them in their ongoing conflict with his human, natural-resource-pilfering employers. Watch an exclusive clip after the jump.
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'Toy Story 3' Photo Exclusive

By Thomas DiChiara (Subscribe to Thomas DiChiara's posts), Posted Dec 10th 2009 3:30PM
Filed under: Movie Photos, Hot Topic
'Toy Story 3' Photo Exclusivet's been 10 long years since Woody, Buzz Lightyear and co.'s last big-screen adventure in the 1999 smash hit 'Toy Story 2,' but don't fret: They're set for more cinematic hijinks in next summer's 'Toy Story 3.' As the exclusive image after the jump shows, Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Mr. Potato Head and the rest of the gang look as good as ever, despite the passage of a decade both in real and movie time.

Unfortunately for the toys, their owner, Andy, has changed; he's grown up and shoved off for college, leaving his once-beloved possessions packed away for storage in the attic. One thing leads to another, however, and the close-knit group of toy friends find themselves stranded at a day-care center, where they must survive mistreatment at the hands of careless children until Woody can find them a new home.

See the exclusive 'Toy Story 3' photo after the jump.
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